In the field of this invention it is known that fault-tolerance is a ubiquitous requirement in order to cope with communication errors in such systems.
It is known to provide redundant communication channels, which may be used in the event of failure of a primary communication channel. However, due to technical/economical constraints (increased cost incurred by redundant cabling and additional node interfaces) the number of channels is limited to two in known systems such as the established ‘Time-Triggered Protocol’ (TTP) and the more-recently proposed ‘FlexRay’ fault-tolerant real-time automotive communication systems.
It is also known to use intelligent network routers, which can intelligently re-route data transfer in the event of failure in a network link. However, equipping network star couplers (e.g., in systems such as wide/local area networks WAN/LAN) with microprocessors increases the overall system cost significantly. In addition such routers introduce a time delay, which may cause problems in distributed safety-critical applications.
Hence, in summary, prior art solutions have the disadvantages of high costs and/or of additional time delays in the communication path.
A need therefore exists for self routing highly available network architecture based on star couplers wherein the abovementioned disadvantage(s) may be alleviated.